weight of one wee error--a sort of last
straw that bothers his back. The impression in _Vanity Fair_ that
disappoints him is not an etching at all, but a reproduction for that
paper by some transfer process.

Atlas has the wisdom of ages, and need not grieve himself with mere
matters of art. "Il n'est pas necessaire que vous sachiez ces
choses-la, mon reverend pere!"

Chelsea.

[Illustration]

_"Confidences" with an Editor_

_TO THE EDITOR OF THE "HOUR."_

Sir,--I have read the intelligent remarks of your critic upon my
pictures, and am happy to be able to remove, I think, the "melancholy"
impression left upon his mind by the supposition that "the best works
are not of recent date." Permit me to reassure him, for the paintings
he speaks of in glowing terms--notably "the full-length portrait of a
young girl," which he overwhelms me by comparing to Velasquez, as well
as the two life-size portraits in black, "in which there is an almost
entire negation of colour" (though I, who am, he says, a colourist,
did not know it)--are my latest works, and but just completed.

May I still farther correct a misconception? The etchings and
dry-points in the gallery do not form a complete set. There are only
fifty exhibited, making about half the number I have executed.

Again, it was from no feeling that "my works were not seen to
advantage when placed in juxtaposition with those of an essentially
different kind," that I "determined to have an exhibition of my own,
where no discordant elements should distract the spectator's
attention." It is true that occasionally it has been borne in upon my
mind that those whose "works are of an essentially different kind,"
are unwilling to place mine in juxtaposition with their own.

My wish has been, though, to prove that the place in which works of
art are shown may be made as free from "discordant elements which
distract the spectators' attention" as the works themselves.

Marvelling greatly that the "principle" that has led me (in his eyes
at least) to paint so that he speaks of me in the same breath with
Velasquez, should be "founded on fallacy,"--I remain, sir, your
obedient servant,

June 10, 1874.

[Illustration]

_Critics "Copy"_

[Sidenote: _The World_, Dec. 8, 1880.]

At the Gallery of the Fine Art Society in New Bond Street, an
exhibition has been opened of the e